Caleb Ewan Scores Hattrick as Porte Leads

Caleb Ewan of Orica-Scott has secured his third stage win in this year's Tour Down Under. Richie Porte remains in the lead with two stages to go

The peloton was only just in time to catch the last remaining escapee, Jack Bauer of Quickstep, and Daryl Impey delivered perfect work to help his teammate Ewan win the sprint ahead of Peter Sagan of Bora-hansgrohe and Team Sky's Danny van Poppel.

"I really couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year,” Ewan said. “My team again did an amazing job. They really backed me on a circuit that could have gone either way and I think you saw on TV that they really committed to the chase and they were really committed to another win today.”

“All of the wins I have had in the past few days, the finishes have been really different. I knew this one was going to be tough but it was tough for all of the sprinters."

"Today was a tricky one," Ewan said after his third win in this race. "It is hard for a lead out train to stay together down the gorge. I was with Daryl Impey for most of it and he did a mega job. He had to move me up but then he pretty much took me to 300metres to go too so it was an amazing turn.

"All of the victories are thanks to the team. Without them, and without their support obviously I couldn't have got the victories that I have. It's a victory for me but it's also a massive victory for the team."

"I'm another year stronger, I'm not fatiguing as much as I used to and I seem to be able to back up stage after stage at the moment."

"Tomorrow we will go for Gerro (Simon Gerrans) and Esteban (Chaves), so I will go back into a support role," he concluded.

BMC Racing Team's Richie Porte successfully defended his 20-second lead over Movistar's Gorka Izagirre Insausti, who got on his bike despite injuries suffered in the late crash in stage 3.

"Yesterday and today, I had so much to lose and not a lot to gain so to get that one done is a massive relief and now it's Willunga which I know quite well," Porte explained. "But that's a different scenario going into it now. I don't have to attack, I've just got to follow. So it's not all about the stage win tomorrow, it's more about trying to defend the ochre jersey."